One flat, 39 tenants: Berlin man, 51, on trial for rental fraud
He is accused of renting out a flat he did not own in Berlin's Mitte district 39 times and pocketing deposits, causing losses of almost 124,000 euros, prosecutors say. He denies it and blames a former partner.
Symbolic image · Photo: Fridolin freudenfett (Peter Kuley) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped and resized)
A 51-year-old man is on trial at Berlin's regional court on charges of aggravated fraud. According to the indictment, between October and December 2023 he rented out a one-room flat with a roof terrace in the Mitte district 39 times, although he neither owned it nor had the right to let it, at 800 euros a month including utilities. Prosecutors say each applicant paid a deposit, the first month's rent and 1,000 euros for a supposed kitchen. No handover took place in any of the cases. The indictment puts the losses at almost 124,000 euros.
Prosecutors say the man showed applicants a doctored copy of an identity card listing him as a resident of the flat. A second indictment concerns the sale of a house in the state of Brandenburg in December 2024: four buyers allegedly agreed to a lower notarised price and paid the difference in cash, which the defendant did not return after withdrawing from the contracts. That case involves 490,000 euros, according to the indictment.
The defendant denies the rental fraud and blames a former business partner who currently cannot be located. He admitted his role in the house sale but said he had been threatened at a petrol station: "I took part out of fear, out of fear for my family." He has been in pre-trial detention for four months. Eight more hearing days are scheduled through Nov. 26. He is presumed innocent until a verdict is reached.